NEW YORK (AP) — A man convicted of helping the Taliban testified at a terrorism trial Wednesday that it was his idea to create a militant jihad training camp in Oregon to recruit men from England and the United States to fight in Afghanistan, but he no longer supports terrorist causes.

James Ujaama, a Muslim convert who lived in Seattle, told a jury in Manhattan federal court that he envisioned the camp, which never came to fruition, in 1999 as a place for Muslims to get military training to fight in Afghanistan.

Ujaama (pronounced oo-ZHAH'-ma) was called by prosecutors as a witness in the trial of Oussama Kassir, who is on trial on charges that he helped al-Qaida by trying to set up a weapons training post in the small Oregon town of Bly.

Ujaama, 43, was born in Denver as James Ernest Thompson before changing his name in the late 1980s when he gave up Christianity to be Muslim.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Bruce asked if he considered himself a terrorist.

"No sir," he said.

Asked if he had ever supported terrorist causes, Ujaama said he had.

"I sympathized and I have supported terrorists in the past, which was foolish. I was not thinking at that time and I wish I had not done that," he said.

Ujaama pleaded guilty in 2007 to charges that he provided material support to terrorists by trying to set up the Bly training camp and by loading computer programs onto Taliban computers during a trip to Afghanistan in 1999. He said he hopes to win leniency from a potential 30-year prison sentence by testifying.

Ujaama testified he tried to create the training camp on 360 acres of land in Oregon in 1999 and created an advertisement for it that he sent to his spiritual guide in London. He said the terrain, with small trees and rocks, and widely varying temperatures, was similar to Afghanistan.

The advertisement, which was entered into evidence, said participants would receive learn about military techniques and be trained with weapons, including rifles, and in hand-to-hand combat and martial arts. It also promised training in archery, hunting and fishing, farming and animal husbandry.

"It is 100 percent legal and so are all of the activities," the advertisement said. "The land is in a state that is pro militia and firearms state, an advantage for self defense training."

Ujaama testified: "It would, in my mind, prepare Muslims, males, to go to the front line and defend the Islamic state."

But the camp never really got off the ground. Ujaama visited the property only three times, the last time with Kassir, who traveled from London expecting to find lots of weapons and young men eager to be trained, he said.

Kassir became angry when he saw nothing had materialized, Ujaama said. They fought and Ujaama left and never returned, he said.

Ujaama testified he went the following year to Pakistan, where he had gone before training briefly in late 1998 at a camp in Afghanistan that was run by Pakistanis.

During a trip to Afghanistan, he said, he sought treatment from a doctor after falling ill. After leaving Afghanistan, he said he saw a newspaper article that showed the U.S. was seeking on terrorism charges the doctor, Ayman al-Zawahiri — al-Qaida's No. 2 leader.

Ujaama testified he was in Pakistan on Sept. 11, 2001.

He testified it left him "a bit happy."

"In the beginning, my personal views was that this was in retribution for all the things that we had done bad in other places around the world to other people," he said.

He said he hoped it would be a wake-up call for the United States, where he returned in 2002, shortly before he was picked up by the FBI on a material witness warrant in Denver in July 2002.

He pleaded guilty the following year in federal court in Seattle to providing material support to terrorists in a plea deal that carried a two-year prison sentence.

When he was freed, he said he found fellow Muslims were suspicious of him, fearing he might be a government spy.

"I was very depressed. I just couldn't fit in," he said. So he violated the terms of his probation by leaving the country to live in Belize, where he was arrested in 2006 by U.S. marshals and returned to the United States.

He said he no longer believes that "violence is the solution to the problems of the Muslims in the world today."

It is not a secret that Great Britain is an important ally of the US in its War on Terror. It is also not a secret that Mr. Altaf Hussain [Founder Leader of Muttahida Qaumi Movement]is currently living in London since early 1992 with half of its Central Leadership with ample freedom to run MQM from a country that is an staunch ally of the USA. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Government had granted him British nationality a few years back as was reported by many newspapers in Pakistan and abroad.

"QUOTE"

On Friday Dec 7, 2007 Altaf Hussain on Friday lashed out at the US and other western countries for supporting the feudal system in Pakistan because it suited their interests. “America is on top of the list of the countries which are pulling the strings of the Pakistani establishment. The US dislikes the MQM because it has always stood against the status quo,” Mr Hussain said in a telephonic address from London to a meeting held as part of his party’s election campaign.He said the US could see everything through its satellites, but it had never been able to see private jails of feudal lords in Pakistan. He accused the US of supporting elements who had looted the country’s exchequer and were involved in extra-judicial killings. But, he said, it never used a good word for the MQM in its reports, despite the fact that over 15,000 of its workers had been killed.

He said some religious and political parties were alleging that President Musharraf was doing everything at the behest of the US, but the fact was that all Pakistani leaders were following the US dictates. Citing the examples of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, he said when the two former prime ministers were living abroad they always requested the US to intervene and get them cleared. He said the US was giving aid to Pakistan and only for the war on terror it had provided $10 billion. “We are compelled to accept the dictates of these powers because we are heavily indebted. If we want to become a sovereign state we will have to eliminate corruption and work hard.” [1]

"UNQUOTE"

Lets see what the history says about Mr. Altaf Hussain and MQM's so-called Anti Americanism.

Since it is known to everybody that MQM was created by General Zia (a US backed Military)Dictator [circa 1978] to counter Jamat-e-Islami, PPP and other Federal Political Parties. In those years Altaf Husaain also visited USA to be precise Chicago and he used to drive cab there [no harm its good to earn money through hard work but one wonder why didn't Altaf blamed USA then despite knowing that USA and General Zia both were backing Ruthless Afghan Fundamentalist in Afghanistan] .

"The earliest political organization of Mohajirs, the All Pakistan Mohajir Student Organization (APMSO) founded in 1978 by Altaf Hussain, evolved into the MQM in 1984. Ethnic and religious divisions in Sindh were exacerbated during the years General Zia-ul Haq was in office (1977 to 1988, of these 1977 to 1985 under martial law) as he used them to suppress and divide democratic opposition to his rule. Ethnic strife between Mohajir and Sindhis who had initially jointly opposed the influx of Punjabis and Pathans into Sindh, rapidly increased in Karachi and Hyderabad from the mid-1980s. The MQM, led by Altaf Hussain, meanwhile consolidated its hold on the Mohajir community. In November 1987, the MQM won local body elections in Karachi, Hyderabad and other urban centres in Sindh." [2]

Mr Altaf Hussain says that USA is backing the Feudal Parties in Pakistan one wonders why the hell MQM and Altaf Hussain was supporting General Musharraf since 12 Oct 1999 and specifically after 2002 Election despite knowing wvery well that General Musharraf Regime is consist upon the very Feudal/Tribal Chiefs which Altaf Hussain and MQM didn't like. MQM and Altaf Hussain must share their responsibility in every crime Musharraf Regime committed.

Running Karachi - from London By Isambard Wilkinson in Karachi and Damien McElroy
Last Updated: 1:36AM BST 15 May 2007

The man in charge of Pakistan's largest city, Karachi, was at his usual command-and-control post at the weekend: a sofa in north London.

As his fiefdom descended into brutal violence, with the deaths of at least 40 people reported amid the worst political bloodshed Pakistan has witnessed in years, Altaf Hussain directed his followers by telephone from a safe place more than 5,000 miles away.

His headquarters, or "international secretariat", is not in the Pakistani port city but housed in a red-brick office block opposite a supermarket on Edgware High Street.

Followers of Mr Hussain, 53, whose Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) is allied to President Pervez Musharraf's government, were accused yesterday of playing a bloody part in the clashes with opposition supporters.

But in an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Mr Hussain insisted that they held a "completely peaceful gathering" and that it was opposition supporters who provoked the violence, in which at least nine MQM activists were killed. When reports of the killings reached Edgware on Saturday morning, Mr Hussain was preparing to address the party by telephone. Three hours later, he defied what he called "agitators" by leaning over the loudspeaker of his phone to speak to his supporters.

Opposition activists loyal to Benazir Bhutto were staging their own anti-government rally when the violence began.

But Mr Hussain said: "It was a completely peaceful gathering by MQM supporters that was targeted by a collaboration of three other parties."

He said he had called for peace. But as tens of thousands of his followers sat cross-legged in reverential silence as they listened to their leader's telephonic address relayed by loudspeakers, in another street armed MQM activists fired directly into the crowds of opposition protesters.

Mr Hussain, who founded the MQM in 1984 specifically to represent the Mohajirs - Muslim refugees from India - has lived in Britian since arriving in 1992 for a kidney operation. He has since become a British citizen, while his party governs five cities and the populous Sind province.

He claimed yesterday that his party is the only force to stand up for secular values in Pakistan. "MQM is the only party against all sorts of religious fanaticism in Pakistan," he said. "It is these groups and their influence, which is all around, that is stopping me coming home. A sizeable majority of the army even have been brainwashed to supporting what the Taliban wants to impose."

Mr Hussain, who spent part of yesterday speaking on the telephone to Gen Musharraf, warned Pakistan's leader not to make any deals with exiled leaders, such as his rival Miss Bhutto, that would see the military ruler resign from the army.

Pakistan faces a referendum on Gen Musharraf's rule before the end of the year and he has promised to abandon his uniform before the poll.

"The situation in South Asia does not allow Pervez Musharraf to take off his uniform, for without it he will have no power at all. Because of activities next door in Afghanistan as well as our own country, the Taliban is growing very strong," Mr Hussaid said.

"He is doing his level best to fight these groups. Musharraf is a very brave man. Only he can prevent the Talibanisation of Pakistan."

Unlike the former prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and Miss Bhutto, Mr Hussain is an exile whose party has consolidated its grip. But Karachi remains tense.

The MQM's most senior leader in Pakistan, Farooq Sattar, said: "The opposition wants to show that Karachi does not belong to the MQM. We have accepted the challenge."

Mr Hussain is one of the Indian subcontinent's more unusual leaders. His political addresses by telephone have been known to last up to four hours, while a Western diplomat in Pakistan described the MQM as "something out of Chicago - nobody leaves the party".

While Mr Hussain promotes the party as a secular cause and courts the middle-class vote, his supporters are known to extort a goonda, or thug, tax from Karachi businesses.

Mr Hussain, who once drove a taxi in Chicago for a living, micro-manages the MQM with acute attention to detail.

The movement runs on Greenwich Mean Time with his ministers in Pakistan fielding hour-long telephone calls into the early hours.

Mr Sattar admitted that his party's image had been tarnished by "accusations of fascism and terrorism" but said this was a "misperception".

Some observers argue that in the tough city of Karachi the MQM has given a vulnerable group protection and a voice.

After Mr Hussain left Pakistan, an army operation was launched against his party during which hundreds of its workers were either killed by police or were arrested on charges of terrorism. He has no plans to return to Pakistan.

When asked why Mr Hussain was not deported to Pakistan before he was granted citizenship, a British diplomat said: "He has not committed a crime on British soil."

The hidden risks of the photo op Stewart Bell, National Post Published: Saturday, April 14, 2007

In Pakistan, Syed Safdar Ali Baqri was a senior official in a political party called MQM, but since moving to Toronto in 1998, he has become an active supporter of the Conservatives.

During the past two federal elections, Mr. Baqri has been photographed with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, House Speaker Peter Milliken, Conservative campaign cochairman John Reynolds and several other Conservative and Liberal MPs.

In some of the pictures, the 42-year-old is shown handing the politicians a booklet listing the "issues that matter most" to the MQM's Canadian chapter, MQM-Canada, which Mr. Baqri heads.

MQM-Canada endorsed the Conservative party in 2004 and 2006, and held a Support Conservative Car Rally and a "Picnic and BBQ" for the Conservative candidate in Don Mills. It says its volunteers worked on campaigns in seven cities.

"We welcome MQM-Canada's support and hope to receive cooperation from all chapters of MQM-Canada," says a statement attributed to Conservative MP Leon Benoit and posted on the group's Internet site in 2004. (Mr. Benoit said he does not recall making the comment.)

The ties between MQM-Canada and the Conservatives continued post-election. When MQM held its three-day annual convention in Toronto last June, Conservative MP Patrick Brown gave a speech. But what exactly is the MQM?

The Conservatives are apparently beginning to ask that same question. The Privy Council Office did some background research on the group last year and sent a memo to Mr. Harper's chief of staff, Ian Brodie.

The four-page memorandum, released under the Access to Information Act, says the MQM is a Pakistani political party with a history of involvement in ethnic riots, kidnapping, torture and murder.

"Terrorist elements" in the MQM have engaged in harassment of opponents and used crime to raise money for the party, it says, adding that MQM leader Altaf Hussain, who lives in exile in Britain, faces "numerous" criminal charges.

While the MQM was at one time considered a security threat to Canada, it has not been a serious concern since it renounced violence and curbed the extremists in its ranks.

But some still wonder why the Conservatives have aligned themselves with a Pakistani political party that human rights groups and even Canadian officials say has a violent past.

"The MQM has a long and well-deserved reputation for violence, extortion and other criminal acts such as murder," said Tom Quiggin, a former RCMP terrorism expert now working at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

When they were the Opposition, the Conservatives often criticized the Liberals for attending events hosted by organizations close to violent groups such as the Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka. But since taking office, the Conservatives are apparently finding it is not always easy to avoid such situations. Which of the many community associations that want the ear of the Prime Minister are worth meeting and which are fronts for extremists? Which photo ops are harmless and which could prove politically damaging down the road?

Conservatives said in interviews they had no idea that even as they were posing for photos with MQM-Canada reps, the Canada Border Services Agency was working to deport dozens of former MQM party workers --and continues to do so -- on the grounds the group was involved in crimes against humanity.

Among those that immigration officials have claimed were complicit in atrocities in Pakistan: Mr. Baqri, the MQM-Canada leader, who was an MQM party boss in Karachi before coming to Canada.

A former minister of industries in the Sindh region of southern Pakistan, Mr. Baqri served as the head of an MQM zone in Karachi. He fled Pakistan and eventually made his way to the United States, where he was part of a committee that tried to build the MQM in North America.

In 1994, an anti-terrorist court in Pakistan convicted him in absentia of kidnapping and torturing an army major, but a higher court overturned the ruling.

When his U.S. asylum claim was rejected, he came to Canada in 1998. The Canadian immigration board's Convention Refugee Determination Division turned down his refugee claim on the grounds that he was aware of abuses committed by MQM members while he was a party leader.

That decision was set aside in 2001 by the Federal Court of Canada, which said immigration officers had failed to query Mr. Baqri about any specific incidents. The court sent the case back for another review, but Mr. Baqri still does not have landed immigrant status.

"He has continued his political activity while in Canada," Mr. Justice Allan Lufty wrote in his 2001 decision on Mr. Baqri's case. "He has organized protests in Ottawa and in Toronto against the government in Pakistan. There are some 9,000 MQM supporters in Canada."

In interviews, Mr. Baqri said it was not unusual that he had met so many of Canada's most powerful politicians despite his unresolved immigration status.

"I'm legally residing in Canada under the prevailing Canadian immigration laws. Also, regarding those politicians, Canada is still a free country and one of the freedom leaders in the world. Therefore, any democratic-minded person can meet with the politicians with [a] common agenda."

A physician by training, Mr. Baqri said he has been unable to work as a doctor in Canada because of his ongoing immigration case. He estimated 100 other former MQM party workers are in a similar limbo.

But he said neither he nor the MQM had ever been involved in violence, and the memo sent to the Prime Minister's Office is inaccurate.

Mr. Baqri said that while individual members of the MQM may have committed crimes on their own, the party did not sanction their activities and those involved were expelled.

Made up partly of MQM party workers who have moved to Canada, MQM Canada describes itself on its Web site as an "active unit" of the MQM. Mr. Baqri said the Canadian group reports to the exiled British leader rather than to MQM headquarters in Pakistan.

MQM-Canada has never been linked to violence. It has chapters in Toronto, Ottawa, Windsor, Calgary and Montreal and describes itself as "perhaps one of the most dynamic Pakistani organization[s] in Canada." A Vancouver chapter is to open soon.

In 2003, MQM-Canada formed a Political Action Committee, and when the writ dropped the following year, the group backed the Conservatives.

"Our workers and supporters in Windsor, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Winnipeg, Calgary and Vancouver were very active with their candidates in their respective cities," Mr. Baqri said.

He said their main objectives are to become part of mainstream Canadian politics and to bridge the gap between immigrants and non-immigrants. "In this process we also like to clarify misunderstandings towards the MQM in Canada," he said.

Political action is just one of the MQM's activities in Canada. In an attempt to stop immigration officials from deporting party members, an MQM activist filed a $50-million lawsuit against the Canadian government in 2005. The suit alleged that MQM members were being routinely refused permanent residency in Canada because immigration authorities have concluded the group has been involved in terrorism. A judge dismissed the case last May.

Supporters of the group also took their complaints to the Security Intelligence Review Committee, the watchdog over the Canadian Security Intelligence

Service. A decision is expected any day, although the government is not obliged to follow its recommendations.

The MQM was formed more than two decades ago to represent the interest of Muhajirs, Urdu-speaking Muslims whose families migrated to Pakistan from India at partition in 1947.

Many Muhajirs settled in the southern cities of Karachi and Hyderabad, where they dominated business and the civil service-- until the Pakistani government purged them from key government posts and nationalized their businesses. A quota system was imposed to limit their access to universities and government.

A student leader at the University of Karachi, Altaf Hussain, formed the MQM in 1984 to defend the rights of Muhajirs, and confrontations followed. Tensions between Muhajirs and ethnic Sindhis, Pashtuns and Punjabis led to violence. "MQM was the main player in the ethnic riots of 1986-87," the Canadian government memo says.

Mr. Baqri disputes that, saying: "We were the victims of the riots."

He said the riots were instigated by Pakistan's ISI military intelligence service.

Human rights groups acknowledge that the MQM was the target of a brutal crackdown by Pakistani government forces, but they say MQM activists engaged in violence as well.

"Despite protestations by MQM leader Altaf Hussain that the MQM does not subscribe to violence, there is overwhelming evidence and a consensus among observers in Karachi that some MQM party members have used violent means to further their political aims," Amnesty International wrote in a 1996 report.

The rights group said there was evidence that opponents of the MQM were tortured and killed while in MQM custody. Pakistani forces in Karachi allegedly found torture rooms used by the MQM.

"During its early history," the Canadian government memo says, "MQM drew its power from terrorist elements in the party, who helped it maintain a stronghold over the densely populated poor areas of Karachi and Hyderabad.

"In addition to the harassment of political and ethnic opponents, these insurgent elements were also responsible for generating funds for the party through criminal activities. The resulting lawlessness effectively crippled Karachi until the Pakistan army launched an operation to restore law and order in 1992."

With Karachi in chaos, the military was sent in to intervene and a repressive campaign against the MQM ensued. "Before the Pakistan army launched its 1992 operation," the memo says, "Altaf Hussain had already fled to the UK in order to avoid prosecution; he remains there in self-imposed exile."

The MQM split into two factions, called MQM (H) and Mr. Hussain's group MQM (A). The MQM (H) was allegedly supported by the Pakistani government to weaken the MQM(A). "Since 1992, the MQM factions have directed their violence against each other, as well as against the Pakistani government," the memo says.

There were almost daily killings between the factions in 1994, and the following year there were up to 10 political killings a day in Karachi, according to a research paper published by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Mr. Baqri said the human rights groups are wrong. They were relying on locals for their information who were either biased or influenced by the government, he said. "It was an organized campaign to malign MQM in the eyes of the West."

In Pakistan's 2002 elections, MQM emerged as the leading party amongst Urdu-speaking Pakistanis. It now has 18 members in the Pakistan National Assembly and is an ally of President Pervez Musharraf against the Islamist militant groups in the political opposition.

The Canadian memo adds that nine MQM members were sentenced to death for the murder of the Governor of Pakistan's Sindh province. While it says Mr. Hussain was acquitted of charges stemming from the kidnapping of an army major, "There are still numerous other criminal cases pending against him."

The memo concerning MQM-Canada was written by Kevin Lynch, the Clerk of the Privy Council. Why it was sent to the Prime Minister's Office is not explained in those parts of the document made public.

"We have no comment on specific pieces of correspondence," said Myriam Massabki, the Privy Council Office spokeswoman.

Mr. Benoit said he knew nothing about the group, although he did remember attending an MQM-Canada campaign event with several Torontoarea Conservative candidates.

He said a news conference was held following the meeting, but he does not believe he made the statement that is attributed to him on the MQM-Canada Web site. "I do know what they had attributed to me, I absolutely didn't know that that was being attributed to me. I mean, they've done that on their own."

Wajid Khan, the Pakistan-born MP who ran for the Liberals but crossed the floor to the Conservatives, had no recollection of meeting the MQM, although his photo is shown on the Web site with Mr. Baqri.

"I can tell you that Mr. Khan has no affiliation, nor has he ever, with the group you mentioned," said his executive assistant Stefano Pileggi.

"He barely remembers meeting someone from MQM ? He doesn't even remember the man's name, and no he had no knowledge of any criminal allegations."

Melisa Leclerc, Mr. Day's spokeswoman, said the Minister had no idea Mr. Baqri had been accused of atrocities. People often see Mr. Day and ask to have their photo taken with him, she said. "I don't think the Minister knew. He's a strong defender of human rights."

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Altaf (MQM-A) has been widely accused of human rights abuses since its founding two decades ago. It claims to represent Mohajirs— Urdu-speaking Muslims who fled to Pakistan from India after the 1947 partition of the subcontinent, and their descendants.

In the mid-1990s, the MQM-A was heavily involved in the widespread political violence that wracked Pakistan's southern Sindh province, particularly Karachi, the port city that is the country's commercial capital. MQM-A militants fought government forces, breakaway MQM factions, and militants from other ethnic-based movements. In the mid-1990s, the U.S. State Department, Amnesty International, and others accused the MQM-A and a rival faction of summary killings, torture, and other abuses (see, e.g., AI 1 Feb 1996; U.S. DOS Feb 1996). The MQM-A routinely denied involvement in violence.

BACKGROUND

The current MQM-A is the successor to a group called the Mohajir Qaumi Movement (MQM) that was founded by Altaf Hussein in 1984 as a student movement to defend the rights of Mohajirs, who by some estimates make up 60 percent of Karachi's population of twelve million. At the time, Mohajirs were advancing in business, the professions, and the bureaucracy, but many resented the quotas that helped ethnic Sindhis win university slots and civil service jobs. Known in English as the National Movement for Refugees, the MQM soon turned to extortion and other types of racketeering to raise cash. Using both violence and efficient organizing, the MQM became the dominant political party in Karachi and Hyderabad, another major city in Sindh. Just three years after its founding, the MQM came to power in these and other Sindh cities in local elections in 1987 (AI 1 Feb 1996; U.S. DOS Feb 1997, Feb 1999; HRW Dec 1997).

The following year, the MQM joined a coalition government at the national level headed by Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP), which took power in elections following the death of military leader General Zia ul-Haq. This marked the first of several times in the 1980s and 1990s that the MQM joined coalition governments in Islamabad or in Sindh province. Meanwhile, violence between the MQM and Sindhi groups routinely broke out in Karachi and other Sindh cities (AI 1 Feb 1996; Jane's 14 Feb 2003).

In 1992, a breakway MQM faction, led by Afaq Ahmed and Aamir Khan, launched the MQM Haqiqi (MQM-H), literally the "real" MQM. Many Pakistani observers alleged that the MQM-H was supported by the government of Pakistan to weaken the main MQM led by Altaf Hussein, which became known as the MQM-A (Jane's 14 Feb 2003). Several smaller MQM factions also emerged, although most of the subsequent intra-group violence involved the MQM-A and the MQM-H (AI 1 Feb 1996; U.S. DOS Feb 1999; Jane's 14 Feb 2003).

Political violence in Sindh intensified in 1993 and 1994 (Jane's 14 Feb 2003). In 1994, fighting among MQM factions and between the MQM and Sindhi nationalist groups brought almost daily killings in Karachi (U.S. DOS Feb 1995). By July 1995, the rate of political killings in the port city reached an average of ten per day, and by the end of that year more than 1,800 had been killed (U.S. DOS Feb 1996).

The violence in Karachi and other cities began abating in 1996 as soldiers and police intensified their crackdowns on the MQM-A and other groups (Jane's 14 Feb 2003). Pakistani forces resorted to staged "encounter killings" in which they would shoot MQM activists and then allege that the killings took place during encounters with militants (U.S. DOS Feb 1996). Following a crackdown in 1997, the MQM-A adopted its present name, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, or United National Movement, which also has the initials MQM (HRW Dec 1997).

MQM-A leader Hussein fled in 1992 to Britain, where he received asylum in 1999 (Jane's 14 Feb 2003). The MQM-A is not on the U.S. State Department's list of foreign terrorist organizations (U.S. DOS 23 May 2003).

While the multifaceted nature of the violence in Sindh province in the 1980s and 1990s at times made it difficult to pinpoint specific abuses by the MQM-A, the group routinely was implicated in rights abuses. In 1992 after the Sindh government called in the army to crack down on armed groups in the province, facilities were discovered that allegedly were used by the MQM-A to torture and at times kill dissident members and activists from rival groups. In 1996, Amnesty International said that the PPP and other parties were reporting that some of their activists had been tortured and killed by the MQM-A (AI 1 Feb 1996).

The MQM-A and other factions also have been accused of trying to intimidate journalists. In one of the most flagrant cases, in 1990 MQM leader Hussein publicly threatened the editor of the monthly NEWSLINE magazine after he published an article on the MQM's alleged use of torture against dissident members (U.S. DOS Feb 1991). The following year, a prominent journalist, Zafar Abbas, was severely beaten in Karachi in an attack that was widely blamed on MQM leaders angered over articles by Abbas describing the party's factionalization. The same year, MQM activists assaulted scores of vendors selling DAWN, Pakistan's largest English-language newspaper, and other periodicals owned by Herald Publications (U.S. DOS Feb 1992).

The MQM-A has also frequently called strikes in Karachi and other cities in Sindh province and used killings and other violence to keep shops closed and people off the streets. During strikes, MQM-A activists have ransacked businesses that remained open and attacked motorists and pedestrians who ventured outside (U.S. DOS Feb 1996; Jane's 14 Feb 2003).

The MQM-A allegedly raises funds through extortion, narcotics smuggling, and other criminal activities. In addition, Mohajirs in Pakistan and overseas provide funds to the MQM-A through charitable foundations (Jane's 14 Feb 2003).

Since the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on the United States, the MQM-A has been increasingly critical of Islamic militant groups in Pakistan. The MQM-A, which generally has not targeted Western interests, says that it supports the global campaign against terrorism (Jane's 14 Feb 2003).

This response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the RIC within time constraints. This response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum.

KARACHI, Dec 7: In what appeared to be an attempt to dispel a perception that the Muttahida Qaumi Movement is a pro-American party, its chief Altaf Hussain on Friday lashed out at the US and other western countries for supporting the feudal system in Pakistan because it suited their interests.

“America is on top of the list of the countries which are pulling the strings of the Pakistani establishment. The US dislikes the MQM because it has always stood against the status quo,” Mr Hussain said in a telephonic address from London to a meeting held as part of his party’s election campaign.

Mr Hussain advised political and religious parties to participate in the general election because “most of their demands have been met by President Pervez Musharraf”.

He said the US could see everything through its satellites, but it had never been able to see private jails of feudal lords in Pakistan.

He accused the US of supporting elements who had looted the country’s exchequer and were involved in extra-judicial killings. But, he said, it never used a good word for the MQM in its reports, despite the fact that over 15,000 of its workers had been killed.

He said some religious and political parties were alleging that President Musharraf was doing everything at the behest of the US, but the fact was that all Pakistani leaders were following the US dictates.

Citing the examples of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, he said when the two former prime ministers were living abroad they always requested the US to intervene and get them cleared.

He said the US was giving aid to Pakistan and only for the war on terror it had provided $10 billion. “We are compelled to accept the dictates of these powers because we are heavily indebted. If we want to become a sovereign state we will have to eliminate corruption and work hard.”

He appealed to political and religious parties to forget the past, accept each other with open heart, try together to rid the country of debt and work for the solidarity and progress of Pakistan.

He offered an apology to parties which might have been affected directly or indirectly by the MQM.

No matter what MQM [Muttahida Quami Movement] claim it will remain a political party whose basic prinicples are based upon the cardinal rules of Fascism or Neo-Fascism or you may call it pure Nazi Party and its Central Coordination Committee [The Rabita Committee] The Famous Nazi Shutzstaffel of Adolf Hitler. MQM claim that the party represent 98 % population of the country that is the Middle Class and Poor people but srangely the MQM itself has become a feudal party in nature and mentality. The worst hit section of the population affected byu the MQM is the very class MQM claim to represent. When MQM leadership asked as to why they are sitting with the present regime since it also represent the Feudals and Tribal Chiefs who are in majority in PML-Q and PML-F, the simple reply ones get is this "that MQM want to bring change by remaining in the system". MQM claims that Altaf Husaain and MQM believe in the indeology of Bacha Khan i.e. Late Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan [a great leader of Indian National Congress and Leading Freedom Fighter before partition] whereas the MQM doesn't even ready to give minute political space to the Awami National Party and by the way the workers of MQM has no competition with the Pashtuns living in Karachi whatsoever as the occupations of both the
communities i.e. Pashtuns and Urdu Speaking are pole apart.

They have no clash of interests except that Mr. Altaf Hussain false ego which has been given a boast by the Military Regime of Musharraf since 1999. Mr. Altaf Hussain nowadays has adopted a new slogan of Anti-Americanism to exploit the so-called literate party base [the literate voters of MQM in Sindh] whereas the maxim which is being followed by Mr Altaf Hussain and MQM is of George W Bush [i.e. Either you are with us or against us] meaning only those citizens of Karachi will be allowed politics who are either members of MQM or Musharraf's Military regime. This can also be interpreted that MQM only accept those Middle Class and Poor People living in Sindh who are in MQM all the others can take a hike. Since MQM from 2002 enjoyed immense clout within the Pakistani Establishment courtesy Musharraf's Military Regime therefore it is requestd that MQM should do away with the exploitative slogans like "there is an establishment conspiracy to malign MQM."

On 17 Dec 2007 [as per Daily Dawn Local News] a clash took place between Awami National Party and MQM on election campaign resulted in an innocent loss of life [the person died had nothing to do with MQM or ANP]. On 18 Dec 2007 [as per Daily Dawn Local News] the MQM Rabita Committee DEMANDED;

“We demand that the Sindh governor and the caretaker chief minister take notice of this act of terrorism and order arrest of those behind the incident.”

One wonders from whom MQM is demanding the justice because Governor Sindh is MQM's member and MQM is part and parcel of General [Now Retired] Musharraf Regime since 2002 to be precise since 12 Oct 1999 and the Caretaker Regime placed by Musharraf after the impostion of emergency i.e. [martial Law and still in force] in Islamabad and in Sindh is well represented by MQM.

Who should the below mentioned should go for justice? Read and lament.

"QUOTE"

“Mr Hussain has lived in Britain since arriving in 1992 for a ‘kidney operation’. He has since become a British citizen, while his party governs five cities and the populous Sindh province. “Mr Hussain, who spent part of Sunday speaking on the telephone to Gen Musharraf, warned Pakistan’s leader not to make any deals with exiled leaders, such as his rival Miss Bhutto, that would see the military ruler resign from the army,” it added “The situation in South Asia does not allow (General) Musharraf to take off his uniform, for without it he will have no power at all. Because of activities ... in Afghanistan as well as our own country, the Taliban (influence) is growing very strong,” Mr Hussain told the Daily Telegraph. “He is doing his level best to fight these groups. (General) Musharraf is a very brave man. Only he can prevent the Talibanisation of Pakistan,” asserted Altaf in the interview.

“Unlike former prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and Miss Bhutto, Mr Hussain is an exile whose party has consolidated its grip. But Karachi remains tense. “His political addresses by telephone have been known to last up to four hours, while a Western diplomat in Pakistan described the MQM as ‘something out of Chicago – nobody leaves the party’. “While Mr Hussain promotes the party as a ‘secular’ cause and courts the middle-class vote, his supporters are known to extort a goonda tax from Karachi businesses. “Mr Hussain, who once drove a taxi in Chicago for a living, micromanages the MQM with acute attention to detail.

LONDON, May 14: The British media is wondering why Mr Altaf Hussain, a British citizen is being allowed by the UK government to run Karachi affairs, and that too through violent means.

“He has no plans to return to Pakistan,” said Daily Telegraph on Monday in a piece titled ‘Running Karachi from London’.

When the newspaper asked why Mr Hussain was not deported to Pakistan before he was granted citizenship, a British diplomat said: “He has not committed a crime on British soil.”

The newspaper said supporters of Mr Hussain, 53, whose Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) is allied to President (General) Pervez Musharraf’s government, were accused of playing a bloody part in clashes with opposition supporters.

“The man in-charge of Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi, was at his usual command-and-control post at the weekend: a sofa in north London.

“As his fiefdom descended into brutal violence, with the deaths of at least 40 people reported amid the worst political bloodshed Pakistan has witnessed in years, Altaf Hussain directed his followers by telephone from a safe place, more than 5,000 miles away.

“His headquarters, or ‘international secretariat’, is not in the Pakistani port city but housed in a red-brick office block opposite a supermarket on Edgeware High Street,” the newspaper report continued. The newspaper quoted him as saying that he had called for peace.

“But as tens of thousands of his followers sat cross-legged in reverential silence as they listened to their leader’s telephonic address relayed by loudspeakers, in another street armed MQM activists fired directly into the crowds of opposition protesters.

“Mr Hussain has lived in Britain since arriving in 1992 for a ‘kidney operation’. He has since become a British citizen, while his party governs five cities and the populous Sindh province.

“Mr Hussain, who spent part of Sunday speaking on the telephone to Gen Musharraf, warned Pakistan’s leader not to make any deals with exiled leaders, such as his rival Miss Bhutto, that would see the military ruler resign from the army,” it added

“The situation in South Asia does not allow (General) Musharraf to take off his uniform, for without it he will have no power at all. Because of activities ... in Afghanistan as well as our own country, the Taliban (influence) is growing very strong,” Mr Hussain told the Daily Telegraph.

“He is doing his level best to fight these groups. (General) Musharraf is a very brave man. Only he can prevent the Talibanisation of Pakistan,” asserted Altaf in the interview.

“Unlike former prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and Miss Bhutto, Mr Hussain is an exile whose party has consolidated its grip. But Karachi remains tense.

“His political addresses by telephone have been known to last up to four hours, while a Western diplomat in Pakistan described the MQM as ‘something out of Chicago – nobody leaves the party’.

“While Mr Hussain promotes the party as a ‘secular’ cause and courts the middle-class vote, his supporters are known to extort a goonda tax from Karachi businesses.

“Mr Hussain, who once drove a taxi in Chicago for a living, micro-manages the MQM with acute attention to detail.

In the same newspaper another report titled ‘Violence as Musharraf’s power fades’ said in the (Karachi) city’s Jinnah Hospital yesterday, Adil Bashir, 23, was recovering from three bullet wounds after narrowly escaping a street execution.

“He said he had not taken part in the rally but was rounded up by armed, teenage MQM activists along with four others. He alleged that he and others were lined up against a wall before being sprayed with automatic gunfire. He and one other survived.

“The actions of the MQM may have been not so much a sign of support for the eight-year rule of Gen Musharraf, but a demonstration of its own power in what could be the first round of a new turf war in Karachi.

“Gen Musharraf’s options are becoming more and more limited as he struggles to have himself re-elected and to continue as army chief.

“His bargaining position for striking a possible power-sharing deal with the PPP leader, Benazir Bhutto, appears to be growing weaker.”

Gen Musharraf used similar words to describe the MQM rally in Karachi. Was it really a manifestation of the people’s power on Saturday that bodies were lying on Karachi’s roads with no one to pick them up? What was the president thinking? Or was he at all?

THE enormity of the crimes committed in Karachi on Saturday and the full extent of the damage done to the city’s social fabric now seem to be sinking in. One is appalled that the police should have abstained from their duty and disappeared without a trace, throwing a city of more than ten million to the wolves. The total chaos in the administration is evident from a top police official’s “disclosure” to a foreign news agency that he did not know who had placed containers at traffic junctions to block the movement of traffic. It would be incorrect to say that the law and order machinery had collapsed; instead, what happened was that the entire law-enforcement machinery was sidelined, allowing unidentified apparatchiks to run the show. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement and the opposition parties have blamed each other for Saturday’s killings and given lists of their “martyrs”, but for the people of Karachi the issue is far grimmer than the blame game, because the spectre of ethnic violence is haunting the city.

Since the mid-nineties, Karachi has had ethnic peace. Even though bomb blasts in mosques, attacks on foreign missions and murder of diplomats occurred, the ethnic violence that rocked the city in the eighties and the first half of the nineties appeared to belong to the past. All communities in what is called mini-Pakistan decided, and rightly, that peace and harmony were in their interest and in the interest of future generations. There have been some bitterly fought local and parliamentary elections, accompanied by violence, but there was no ethnic trouble. Saturday’s events shattered this idyll. Mercifully, the ethnic trouble was localised, and all sides appear keen to contain the menace, but one should keep one’s fingers crossed.

However, no comment on Saturday’s bloodbath would be complete without a look at the larger picture. That very day, President Pervez Musharraf addressed a massive gathering in Islamabad organised by the PML. How people were brought to the place where the president addressed them and whether they were really party workers are issues of lesser importance; what is more pertinent and perhaps shocking was the singing and dancing going on at the rally at a time when the nation’s biggest city was burning and bleeding. It would be wrong to say that those at the rally did not know what was going on in Karachi. By mid-day, thanks to the TV channels, the entire country knew about Karachi’s trauma, but the rally organisers continued with what appeared to be a celebration — which the president called a demonstration of the people’s power. Gen Musharraf used similar words to describe the MQM rally in Karachi. Was it really a manifestation of the people’s power on Saturday that bodies were lying on Karachi’s roads with no one to pick them up? What was the president thinking? Or was he at all?

On behalf of the entire nation, we demand a judicial probe into Saturday’s carnage. The crimes committed that day are too horrendous to be ignored. The nation has the right to know why the police and the fabled paramilitary Rangers disappeared, who barricaded key traffic junctions and was manning some of the roadblocks with weapons in hand, what party or organisations the killers belonged to, and whether the Sindh government did all that it did on Saturday on instructions from Islamabad to frustrate Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry’s programme in Karachi.

Blair might be dragged into controversy over Altaf's role Rauf Klasra Friday, May 18, 2007

LONDON: Prime Minister Tony Blair might be dragged into the controversy over the role of British passport holder Altaf Hussain in the recent unrest in Karachi as the UK media has turned its guns on the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and has given a prominent coverage to accusation of PTI chief Imran Khan and other opposition leaders for giving "sanctuary" to a politician whose party was linked to killings in Pakistan.

The threats of Pakistani opposition leaders to file cases in the courts of Britain against the British government for giving asylum to Altaf has also generated a lot of interest in the media. Imran's criticism of Tony Blair has been given prominent coverage in the British media on Thursday and there is strong possibility that it might echo in the House of Commons where Blair or Labour party leaders might be asked to explain the position of Britain with regard to the role of one of its citizens in the Karachi carnage.

Observers here believe that British media might create troubles for Altaf Hussain in the days to come as the statements of Pakistani politicians against the MQM and its involvement in the recent violence were being given big coverage. Altaf had obtained British passport in the 90s.

Since Saturday's killings in Karachi, the British media has already started asking serious questions from its government about the role of Altaf in the killings in Karachi. Daily Telegraph was the first British paper that had filed stories against Altaf and his role in the violence in Karachi. The next day, its reporter met Altaf at his residence and the newspaper ran a four-column story on its front page with the headline "Running Karachi from London".

Altaf who usually does not meet Pakistani journalists, spent a lot of time with the British journalist knowing how much power the media enjoyed in this country. Altaf defended the position of his party and rejected allegations that he or his party was responsible for violence in Karachi.

Despite denials by the MQM, almost all the British newspapers in their reports, comments and editorials put the blame of violence on the shoulders of MQM workers and had asked that to what extent the man running MQM from London could be responsible.

Imran in his statement accused Blair of giving sanctuary to a politician whose party he claimed was linked to killings in Pakistan at the weekend. Daily Telegraph says that armed gunmen linked to MQM are accused of sparking a series of clashes between rival groups when they opened fire on an anti-government protest.

However, Mohammed Anwar, head of international relations for the MQM, denied that Altaf had been responsible for any violence in Karachi, saying: "He is living here [Britain] since 1992 so how could he stir up violence when he is not even living in Karachi?"

Anwar pointed out that women and children joined the rallies, which the MQM organised in the city. "If we wanted to commit carnage, would we bring our mothers and sisters and daughters on to the streets with us? It simply isn't plausible." He said Imran's criticism of Altaf was motivated by the MQM's success in "making inroads into other parts of Pakistan".

Who is to blame for Karachi mayhem? Umar Cheema Saturday, May 19, 2007

ISLAMABAD: The Chief Secretary of Sindh had strongly opposed the strategy of the provincial government for May 12 while the Prime Minister’s advice to the provincial government for a judicial inquiry into the killings has been turned down, authoritative sources said on Friday. It was also revealed that the MQM had wanted to join the Islamabad rally but was stopped by the Chaudhrys of Gujrat.

Observers believe that these three important developments concerning the May 12 killings in Karachi may have a serious impact not only at the provincial level but also at the national. Sources said the Chief Secretary of Sindh, Shakeel Durrani, had strongly opposed the ‘counter productive’ strategy of the provincial government designed for May 12, the day the Chief Justice of Pakistan had gone to Karachi for addressing lawyers there. He had written in advance to his seniors, proposing that hurdles should not be created and that the CJ be given a smooth passage.

His recommendations were in clear contradiction to the Sindh Home Department, headed by former sector commander of Military Intelligence, Brig (retd) Ghulam Muhtaram. While the home department, fearing a serious law and order situation, insisted the CJ should not take the flight to Karachi, the chief secretary opposed the plan that was aimed to flop the CJ’s show, warning it would deteriorate the situation.

Shakeel Durrani had not only verbally opposed the blockade of roads but had also opposed in writing to such a plan that was prone to violence and mass-scale killings. He had instead recommended that no hurdle should be created and Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry should be allowed to go by the route he wanted to use for reaching the high court bar.

His recommendations, however, got a deaf ear from those who matter in decision-making in Sindh. Durrani is believed to have also held responsible his provincial government for Karachi mayhem, The News has learnt on good authority. While Durrani did not comment on the report when contacted by The News, another officer close to him confirmed it but refused to provide the details.

Meanwhile, the Sindh government has refused to order a judicial inquiry into the killings. The News has learnt on good authority that Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz wanted to order a judicial inquiry into the incident. He went to Karachi on Wednesday with this plan but faced opposition from his ruling allies in Sindh.

According to the sources, the PM had gone to Karachi with a plan to announce ordering judicial inquiry in a press conference after holding meetings there. Information Minister Muhammad Ali Durrani, Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao and Secretary Interior Kamal Shah had also accompanied him during this visit late Wednesday.

Sources privy to the development say the PM’s plan could not materialize following stiff opposition from his allies in Sindh who said that such an order would open up a new Pandora’s Box. The PM who had ordered judicial inquiry into the mysterious murder of Supreme Court’s additional registrar Hamad Raza, failed to do it in a case where more than 40 people had been killed in just one day, ie May 12.

Information Minister Muhammad Ali Durrani, however, termed the ordering of judicial inquiry as a legal issue. He also did not deny that the PM was planning to order a judicial inquiry but said: “I am not in knowledge of the plan”. Also, some MQM lawmakers have been heard blaming the Chaudhrys of the Gujrat for ‘pushing’ them to hold a separate rally in Karachi instead of joining the PML-Q rally in Islamabad held the same day.

They feel the May 12 incidents have left an adverse impact on their strategy to expand to other provinces so as to become a mainstream political party. The Karachi tragedy has put the MQM in dock as its offices in the Punjab and rural Sindh have faced a virtual closure following protests by the public of respective areas who blamed them for this bloodbath in Karachi.

In their background interviews, the MQM lawmakers are blaming Chaudhrys of Gujrat for putting them to ‘abuse’. They say they were not for holding a rally in Karachi. According to them, they had expressed the desire to join the PML-Q rally held in Islamabad the same day but were denied.

MQM parliamentary leader Dr Farooq Sattar, in his on-the-record discussion, has neither denied nor confirmed the claim of his party colleagues. But he said their plan to hold rally in Karachi was made after detailed deliberation.

LONDON, May 19: About 25 Pakistani students studying at top UK institutions and a couple of finance and media professionals have said they plan to lobby the UK government to dissuade British citizens from fomenting and inciting trouble back home by making hate speeches over the telephone.

They met at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) here on Friday night to discuss the deteriorating political and law and order situation back home in the wake of May 12 Karachi carnage.

The students who belong to Oxford and Cambridge universities, London School of Economics and the SOAS and representing all the four provinces have styled themselves as “May 12 Group”.

The group said if any Pakistani holding dual nationality wanted to do politics in Pakistan, he/she should first give up his/her British citizenship and then return to Pakistan to lead his/her party.

They also said it was incumbent on the UK government to effectively discourage its citizens from inciting through telephonic speeches their followers in Pakistan to go on bloody rampage.

Those studying law were of the opinion that if it was illegal for British citizens to deliver hate speeches inside the UK, it should be equally illegal for them to make such speeches over the telephone and foment trouble in friendly countries.

Referring to Imran Khan’s announcement that he intended to approach the British courts against those UK citizens who, he alleged, had encouraged their political workers in Karachi to show whose city it was, come what may on May 12, the group said it would provide the Tehrik-i-Insaf chief all legal and other help he would need in this regard.The group is also planning to publish leaflets recounting in black and white the May 12 carnage, stage walks, hold seminars and lobby MPs of all political parties here to mobilise public opinion in favour of their mission.

Amnesty demands inquiry into May 12 killings By Our Special Correspondent

LONDON, May 23: Amnesty International (AI) has sent letters to the federal and the Sindh governments asking them to institute an independent inquiry into the May 12 killings in Karachi and mete out exemplary punishment to the perpetrators of the crime.

AI Secretary-General Irene Khan, while releasing its 2007 report on the state of human rights in various parts of the world at a press conference here on Wednesday, said it was the government’s responsibility to protect the life and property of its citizens and, therefore, it could not abdicate this responsibility on any excuse.

The information about AI’s letters to the federal and provincial governments was disclosed by Angelika Pathek, spokesperson for the AI on Pakistan.

The report’s chapter on Pakistan said scores of people suffered arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances in the country during the year.

“Victims included terror suspects, Baloch and Sindhi nationalists and journalists, the report said.

It said unlawful killings were carried out with impunity, while the blasphemy laws were used to persecute members of minorities and ‘honour’ killings continued to be reported.

According to the report, tribal and religious councils unlawfully exercised judicial functions and enforced cruel, inhuman and degrading punishments.

At least 446 people were sentenced to death. The number of executions reported, 82, including one juvenile, was a steep increase from the previous year, said the report.

“While the confrontation between the army and nationalist activists intensified in Balochistan province, in the tribal areas the government agreed a peace pact with tribal elders and local Taliban. The September agreement apparently allowed tribal fighters to find shelter and to set up quasi-governmental structures, collect taxes, impose their ‘penal code’ and exercise quasi-judicial functions.

“Some people were publicly executed by vigilante groups seeking to impose their own interpretation of Islamic norms. More than 100 people were killed in the tribal areas, apparently for cooperating with the government. Many decapitated bodies were found with notes warning others not to support the government.

“The dialogue with India faltered when Indian police accused Pakistan of involvement in bomb blasts in Mumbai and Pakistan accused India of supporting Baloch nationalists. It resumed towards the end of the year.

“Scores of people suspected of links to terrorist groups, Baloch or Sindhi activists, and journalists were arbitrarily detained and subjected to enforced disappearance. State agents denied knowledge of whereabouts to relatives and when questioned in court during habeas corpus hearings. Those released reported being tortured and ill-treated.”

The Report named Abdur Rahim Muslim Dost, an Afghan settled in Pakistan, and Munir Mengal, director of the first independent Balochi-language TV channel, as two of those still missing without any trace.

“Impunity for unlawful killings of suspected criminals and political opponents of the government contributed to their increase. In June, journalist Hayatullah Khan was found shot dead in North Waziristan. In January, between 13 and 18 people were reportedly unlawfully killed by missiles fired from US drones in the tribal areas, and in October, at least 82 people died in a similar attack.

“In both attacks children were reportedly killed. State officials described the victims as ‘militants’ but had made no attempts to arrest them or to stop their activities.

“At least 44 registered cases of blasphemy were reported during 2006. Blasphemy cases took years to conclude. The accused were rarely released on bail and were often ill-treated in detention. A Catholic bishop committed suicide to protest at the targeting of Christians.

“Honour killings, domestic violence, including maiming, and harmful traditional practices continued at a high level. Jirgas, which the Sindh High Court had banned in 2004, continued to ‘sentence’ girls and women to cruel punishments. In Mardan and Swabi districts, 60 girls and women were handed over to their families’ opponents to settle conflicts and as compensation for murder in three months in mid-2006.

“The appeal against the Lahore High Court judgment of December 2004 which declared the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance (JJSO) unconstitutional, remained pending. The temporarily reinstated JJSO continued to be poorly implemented as many areas remained without parole officers, the number of juvenile courts remained insufficient and in some areas there were none. Juveniles continued to be tried with adults.

“Some 446 people were sentenced to death, mostly for murder. Eighty-two people were executed, mostly in Punjab. Mutabar Khan, believed to be 16 at the time of an alleged murder in 1996, was executed in Peshawar Central Prison in June 2006.

“International relief agencies said that many earthquake related reconstruction programmes faced funding deficits and delays due to administrative difficulties and lack of information about victims’ needs,” the report said.

KARACHI: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement seems to have messed up in a big way this time. If the issue wasn’t so grim, the incoherent statements made by its “leaders” would have made a comic story. Post May 12, there has been a constant trickle of discordant statements issued from Karachi and London, each setting off a fresh controversy. A better example of the expression –- “shooting yourself in the foot” -– will be difficult to find.

The reaction to the May 12 bloodbath in Karachi has perhaps taken the establishment by surprise, if not by shock. This time Karachiites have shown more than just resilience and that was an eventuality not taken into consideration when the May 12 ‘event’ was being planned. As public outcry reverberated from Karachi to Khyber -- and subsequently found its way to the United Kingdom – inconsiderate political leaders started to expose themselves to odium and ridicule as they spun a paradoxical web of betrayal under the relentless glare of the media.

To recap, just days after the Karachi killings, Sindh Home Secretary Brigadier (Retd) Ghulam Mohammed Mohtaram and the Adviser to the Sindh Chief Minister on Home Affairs Waseem Akhtar categorically declared that they had given right orders for May 12 to all the law enforcement agencies in Karachi.

As government functionaries responsible for law and order, both the ‘honourable’ gents declared on record that if the ‘measures’ they had taken had not been in place that day, “thousands would have died”. By the word “measures” it was further explained that it was these representatives of the MQM in the government who had decided to block the city and disarm the police and Rangers.

But, soon after these statements were splashed far and wide came the startling question from MQM chief Mr Altaf Hussain in his open letter addressed to “Patriotic Pakistanis” from London: “Where were the police and Rangers on May 12 during the bloodbath?”

With public outcry gaining momentum rather than dying down, the same contradiction continued at successive press conferences, where blame and accusation shifted back and forth from law enforcement agencies to “other” elements involved in the mayhem.

It is obvious that the ruling coalition was not prepared for the current reaction of Karachiites and the support from Punjab and the NWFP when it was planning the May 12 display of power play.

The latest disagreement within the party has exposed an even more serious lack of coordination as the MQM coordination committee has disowned the statement issued by its allied organisation, the Mohajir Rabita Council, which issued a press release on May 22 that included a list of journalists described as “chauvinistic”, among other insults.

With Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad doing his utmost to calm down opposition members -- as is obvious from his meetings with ANP chief Asfandyar Wali Khan, Naib Amir of the Jamaat-i-Islami Ghafoor Ahmed and Sindh Pakistan People’s Party president Syed Qaim Ali Shah -- the Council’s statement again belies all good intentions (if any) of the MQM leaders in government who are trying to salvage their position at this crucial pre-election juncture. And then, there is the ‘three option’ statement given by the Muttahida coordination committee after a ‘marathon session’ of meetings held in London.

The options are: the MQM members in the federal ministries might resign; the MQM members in both the federal and provincial ministries might resign; and the MQM members in the assemblies might join the opposition.

Political analysts can’t wait to see which way the party’s pendulum will eventually swing. But then there is the ever-present hand of the party’s guardian angel in the form of the president who has continually been asking the coalition partners to support the MQM. You can’t clap with one hand, after all.

With the violence in Karachi, the demand for the reinstatement of a judge hasbecome an agitation for the removal of a President.

AS the late-night flight from Islamabad taxied to a halt at Karachi's Jinnah International Airport, mobile phones began bleeping on the plane. Nothing unusual in that, except that passengers soon realised they were getting near-identical messages: All roads in the city blocked; impossible to get out of the airport; stay put until the situation improves.

It was 1.40 a.m. on May 12, about 11 hours before Pakistan Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary was due to arrive in Karachi, the country's most populated city, to address the Sindh High Court Bar Association later in the day. The event was expected to attract thousands of lawyers, besides opposition activists and members of the public rallying to express support for the Chief Justice, who has been "non-functional" since March 9 following a presidential reference against him on charges of misconduct and abuse of authority.

The attempt to remove Chaudhary has triggered President Pervez Musharraf's biggest domestic crisis since 1999. The Chief Justice's decision to stay on and fight his ouster in court and on the streets led to an agitation spearheaded by the legal community, which demanded the withdrawal of the reference and Chaudhary's reinstatement and widened rapidly into a demand for the removal of Musharraf from the presidency.

Only a week before his scheduled visit to Karachi, Chaudhary received a rapturous welcome in Lahore. All along the historic Grand Trunk Road from Islamabad, people lined up to welcome his motorcade, which grew as it snaked from one small town or village to the next. The 275-km journey took 25 hours to complete. The city stayed awake through the night waiting for the motorcade to arrive. The show panicked Musharraf and his government.

Karachi's legal community and opposition parties promised to make his visit to their city as, if not more, spectacular. "Sindh is known for its 300-year-old tradition of hospitality and, inshallah, we will welcome the Chief Justice in keeping with this tradition," said Naeem Qureshi, secretary-general of the Karachi Bar Association, three days before the event.

Musharraf speaks from behind a bullet-proof barrier at the ruling party rally in Islamabad on May 12.

As opposition parties too announced plans to welcome the Chief Justice at the airport and escort him into the city, the possibility grew that the zeal of Lahore might repeat itself in Karachi. That was when the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) stepped in to prevent another show of strength by Chaudhary, the legal community and the opposition parties.

The MQM is Karachi's most powerful political force. With the 2002 elections, it became a Musharraf ally, a partner of the Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid)-led ruling coalition at the Centre and the dominant partner of the same party in the Sindh provincial government. It considers Karachi its own turf.

Built on an ethnic base of Urdu-speakers who migrated from India at Partition, the MQM earned notoriety for the wave of violence that swept Karachi in the early 1990s. After Operation Clean Up in 1992, which saw its leader Altaf Hussain flee to London, where he has lived since, the party managed to thrive, demonstrating in every election that it was a force to reckon with.

Within days of 9/11, the MQM held a rally in Karachi, said to have been attended by 2,00,000 people, to express support for the United States' "war on terror" and to strengthen the hand of Musharraf at a time of great internal opposition to his pro-US policies. Its thuggish tactics nothwithstanding, the MQM boldly proclaims itself the only secular party in Pakistan, and still gets votes. In its quest to make national inroads, it changed its name from the Mohajir Qaumi Movement - "mohajir" means refugee, and in this case stands for migrants to Pakistan from India - to the Muttahida (United) Qaumi Movement.

When Altaf Hussain, Altaf bhai to his supporters, announced from London that the party would take out a rally on the same day as the scheduled arrival of Chief Justice Chaudhary, it was clear to anyone familiar with Karachi that these would not be two parallel peaceful events.

Lawyers surround suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary outside his residence in Islamabad as he leaves for Karachi on May 12.

The MQM said it also stood for the independence of the judiciary and would rally to demand that the judiciary be freed from the clutches of the opposition parties, which were using the Chaudhary issue for political gain.

The Sindh government asked Chaudhary to postpone his visit, saying it expected violence. The Chaudhary camp said that the Chief Justice was proceeding according to a plan drawn up much earlier to address Sindh High Court lawyers on the occasion of the Supreme Court's 50th anniversary. They said the Sindh government should ask the MQM to call off its rally.

From the roadblocks, it was clear that the MQM was not as interested in holding its own rally as it was in preventing the Chief Justice from leaving the Karachi airport. Huge container trucks, buses, tankers and other heavy vehicles were packed tightly across every few 100 metres of every important road in the city. This correspondent managed to leave the airport in the pre-dawn hours of May 12 only with the assistance of an MQM office-bearer, who introduced himself at every blockade, and managed to get a bus moved here and a truck moved there to squeeze his car through. Where that was impossible, those manning the blockades gave directions to alternative routes into town.

The mayhem began a few hours later and coincided with the touchdown of the aeroplane carrying Chief Justice Chaudhary. Small processions of opposition parties, such as Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and the Awami National Party of Pashtuns (a significant force in multi-ethnic Karachi), tried to break through the barriers on Sharah-e-Faisal, the arterial road between the airport and the city. Gun battles broke out between groups. Gunmen on rooftops of apartment buildings shot at people on the roads. The injured lay unattended for hours alongside the dead because ambulances were unable to reach them through the blockades.

The Pakistan Rangers, an elite paramilitary force entrusted with a good amount of Karachi's law enforcement, could be seen in substantial numbers with the local police in several places, but they did nothing to stop the violence. As lawyers went in procession from the City Court, which houses the sessions courts, to the Sindh High Court to await the arrival of the Chief Justice, mobs threw stones at them and fired into the air. The action the police took was to detain the lawyers.

Elsewhere in the city, the building of Aaj, a private television station whose licence the government threatened to cancel in April for its coverage of the political crisis, came under gunfire for close to six hours. Viewers saw its star anchor, Talat Hussain, pleading live from inside the building for law-enforcers to come to the rescue of the station, but to no avail.

The MQM showed it was the "boss" in Karachi. At the end of the day, the city was reeling with 33 dead and over 150 injured. More would succumb to their injuries, and when the violence continued for a second day, the death toll went up to 41.

Airport standoff

At the airport, another drama was unfolding with the noon arrival of Chief Justice Chaudhary on board a regular Pakistan International Airways flight from Islamabad. As he and his entourage of about 25 lawyers got off the aircraft, the Sindh Inspector-General of Police and a Rangers officer were standing by. They told him that a helicopter was waiting to take him to the Sindh High Court.

Chaudhary said he wanted his hosts from the Karachi Bar Association to be permitted to come to the airport and that he would go into town only with them. He also refused to go anywhere without his team. At this point, the Inspector-General and other police officers reportedly tried to hustle the Chief Justice into a car. His lawyer, Aitzaz Ahsan, and others in the entourage resisted the police and took him to a lounge in the airport.

Ahsan, a frontline member of the PPP and an articulate parliamentarian, later said the lawyers travelling with the Chief Justice had foiled an attempt by the Sindh government to "kidnap" Chaudhary.

Soon afterward, the Sindh Interior Secretary (a portfolio held by the MQM) reached the airport and delivered an ultimatum: either the Chief Justice take the waiting helicopter to keep his engagement at the Sindh High Court or he returned to Islamabad. Chaudhary refused to do either and said he would leave the airport only by road to Karachi.

At Lahore High Court, Lawyers greet Justice Chaudhary on May 6.

Meanwhile, the Sindh High Court Chief Justice summoned the police and asked them to clear the blockades on Sharah-e-Faisal to enable Chaudhary to take the road. But the police said they were helpless and unable to implement the order.

Outside the Arrivals terminal, journalists, including this correspondent, waited in large numbers in case Chaudhary should emerge suddenly. Behind them, plumes of smoke rose up to the sky from the main road - a tell-tale sign that the violence on Sharah-e-Faisal was such that even if the Chief Justice came out, he would not be able to take the road to the High Court.

The standoff continued through the day.

Three rallies

Late in the afternoon, MQM activists arrived in large numbers at a place in the city called Tibet Centre, where Altaf bhai addressed them over the telephone from London. Stumped by its own blockades, the party could not gather the crowds that it is known to muster usually, but it was still an impressive show.

Hussain reminded the Chief Justice that he had betrayed the Constitution by taking an oath under Musharraf's Provisional Constitutional Order in 2000. He challenged him to resign and apologise to the nation for this, and only then step forward to lead the struggle for the independence of the judiciary. From his office in London's Edgware Road, he said political and religious parties in the opposition were "conspiring" to use the Chief Justice to dissolve the government.

The MQM leader blamed Chaudhary for the violence and said no violent incidents had taken place until his flight landed at Karachi.

At the Sindh High Court premises, hundreds of lawyers who had managed to reach there waited for the Chief Justice. The stage was ready, and chairs had been laid out on the lawns. Rose petals in huge plastic bags, meant to shower the Chief Justice with when he arrived, wilted in the May heat inside the lounge. Lawyers huddled around television sets, watching live coverage of the day's events on several channels. At one point late in the afternoon, as the cameras showed Altaf Hussain addressing the MQM rally, loud boos and jeers and cries of "shame, shame" went up from the lawyers. As the lawyers continued their vigil late into the evening, the Sindh High Court Bar Association president, Abrar Hassan, said, "We will keep waiting for our guest, whether it takes him two days to get here or four days."

Eventually, the lawyers dispersed late that night after the Chief Justice announced that he was returning to Islamabad. By then, his entourage had been served deportation orders to leave Sindh province. Having proved the point that the provincial government had not been able to facilitate his entry into Karachi, Chaudhary called off his sit-in at the airport.

By 6 p.m., the police and the Rangers could be seen supervising the removal of the vehicles that were blocking the roads.

From Karachi, television viewers could see President Musharraf addressing a rally in Islamabad organised by the PML(Q). All day, as Karachi burnt, vehicles carrying PML(Q) supporters poured into the federal capital for the rally, which the PML(Q) had pledged would be bigger than Chaudhary's Lahore meeting. When Musharraf addressed the gathering, it was late at night. Like Altaf Hussain, he held the Chief Justice responsible for the violence in Karachi. He also said that the MQM rally in Karachi and the one he was addressing in Islamabad were a "clear demonstration of support for him and his policies".

Battle lines drawn

Events in Karachi have drawn the political battle lines in Pakistan even more firmly. The violence has united the opposition like never before. And what was an agitation for the reinstatement of a judge has now become an agitation for the removal of a President. The strike called by the opposition on May 14 was observed in full in Karachi and affected life in all major cities. Traders and shopkeepers, seen as Musharraf's natural constituency, said on television that they wanted to register their anger at what happened in Karachi.

Musharraf has also shown that he is determined to fight back, but, in doing so, he has considerably narrowed his manoeuvring space. Talk of a deal between Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto has ended. As long as he projected the judicial crisis as "purely a judicial and constitutional matter" that would be decided within the four walls of a courtroom, he could paint the political agitation as unjustified and unreasonable.

Allowing himself to be drawn out on to the streets was a tacit acceptance of the opposition argument that the government action against the Chief Justice was about the larger question of whether or not he should continue. By permitting, and even encouraging, a political ally to prevent the Chief Justice from entering the city, the President showed the extent of his political insecurity.

While the MQM has no image to lose, the violence in Karachi has damaged Musharraf the most. The ethnic party has given a new dimension to the crisis. The bloodletting pitted the MQM's Urdu-speakers against the ANP's Pashtun followers - Pashtuns were the majority of the dead - and to some extent against the Punjabis and the Sindhis. The ANP called a three-day strike in Karachi from May 27. At the national level, the President's actions have brought accusations that as Army Chief and an Urdu-speaker, he used the ethnic card to ward off his troubles.

A demonstration in Peshawar on May 14. Similar protests by opposition parties and lawyers occurred in major cities including Lahore, Quetta, Peshawar and Mansehra.

The Supreme Court stayed the proceedings of the five-judge panel known as the Supreme Judicial Council that was hearing the government's March 9 reference against Chaudhary. A full court is hearing Chaudhary's constitutional petition challenging the reference. While the government says that the pro-Chaudhary camp is putting pressure on the judiciary through its street protests, a court official was shot in his home and Chaudhary's lawyers say it was a targeted killing. The official was reported to have been under immense pressure to depose against Chaudhary.

Both in the courtroom and outside, it appears to be a no-holds-barred battle from now on. Those on Chaudhary's side say they are fighting for the restoration of a constitutional democracy. Musharraf is fighting to stay on in power. Some analysts believe that Musharraf could still defuse the crisis by calling early parliamentary elections - due at the end of this year - so that opposition energies are diverted. But this option is fraught with the danger of a defeat at the hustings if the elections are free and fair.

Any outcome to the crisis will also depend on how much the military, as an institution, feels threatened. Even though protesters have focussed on Musharraf - the refrain of the agitation was "Go Musharraf go" - slogans have also been raised against the "uniform" for the first time.

The Karachi ruling party 'run like the mafia' from an office block in London· MQM accused of planning carnage which left 42 dead · Khan calls for leader in UK to face anti-terror charges by Declan Walsh in Karachi and Matthew Taylor The Guardian, Saturday 2 June 2007

Outside may be Karachi but inside the discreetly guarded room all minds are focused on London. The clock is set to British summer time and a pair of telephones connect to an office 5,000 miles away, from where a controversial Pakistani leader runs his political empire.

Altaf Hussain leads the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) - a powerful, popular and, critics say, thuggish political force that has a vice-like grip on Karachi. At "Nine Zero", the party headquarters in a middle-class suburb, his presence looms large. A giant poster hangs over the entrance and reverential acolytes speak of "Altaf bhai", or brother. But the great leader is missing.

For the past 16 years Mr Hussain has lived in self-imposed exile in the UK, first as an asylum seeker and now as a British citizen. Based in an office block on Edgware High Street in north London he rules by phone, directing his closest lieutenants in long, late-night conversations. But in Pakistan that arrangement has become a matter of controversy - one about to land at the British government's door.

Yesterday the cricketer turned politician Imran Khan arrived in London to try to have Mr Hussain prosecuted under British anti-terror laws. Three weeks ago gunmen opened fire on a rally in support of the chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, triggering a day of bloodshed that left 42 people dead. Mr Khan - as well as lawyers, human rights activists and opposition parties - accuse Mr Hussain of orchestrating the carnage from his sofa in London.

"The whole thing was planned. No British citizen is allowed to sit in London and direct terrorist operations abroad. So why should Altaf Hussain?" said Mr Khan who described the MQM as "a fascist movement run by criminals".

If Pakistan has to arrest al-Qaida operatives then Britain has an obligation to pick up Mr Hussain, added Mr Khan, who plans to bring a petition to Downing Street. "There's a war on terror going on but here we have Pakistan's No 1 terrorist being given sanctuary by the British government," he said.

The MQM denies the charges, and insists it was the victim and not the perpetrator of May 12. The party says 13 of its own activists were among the dead, and last week it produced a video from May 12 showing apparent supporters of the rival Pakistan People's party firing their guns in the air. "This is a conspiracy against us. Our decision to hold a rally on May 12 may be open to criticism, but we were not involved in armed attacks," said Dr Farooq Sattar, head of the party in Pakistan.

But Mr Hussain has little to say. At the MQM's "International Secretariat" on Edgware High Street - a red brick office block opposite a supermarket - a party official said the leader was not available for comment. But he was happy to show the Guardian around the offices, which he confirmed was Mr Hussain's London headquarters, and he vowed to repel any court action by Mr Khan.

The fight is getting personal. Back in Karachi graffiti slurs against Imran Khan appeared on walls and the MQM-dominated local government has banned him from the city for one month.

The MQM was founded in 1984 by Mr Hussain, a former Chicago cab driver, and won broad support among the "mohajirs" - Muslims who fled India after partition in 1947. The party prided itself on its well-oiled machine and its secular, liberal outlook. But it was also linked to extortion, gun smuggling and South African crime networks, according to a senior police officer speaking on condition of anonymity. "That's what happens when a political party is run like the mafia," he said.

Local reporters have a rich store of-tales from the 1990s. One said she found a severed hand as a warning in her front garden, another was kidnapped from his home.

But since it entered a coalition government with President Pervez Musharraf in 2002, the party has projected a different image based on secularism, economic development and support for the "war on terror". Moderates such as the Karachi mayor, Mustafa Kamal, boast of new roads, sewage systems and billions of pounds in fresh investment. "MQM believes in every sect and religion. We are against extremism. We were the first people on the streets after 9/11," he said.

But since May 12 the party's aspirations of becoming a national force lie in shreds, and there are worrying echoes of past tactics. On Tuesday, three Karachi journalists with foreign news agencies found unmarked envelopes containing a single bullet on their car windscreens. Two of them had earlier been denounced as "anti-mohajir" by the MQM-linked Muhajir Rabita Council.

Will Mr Hussain ever come home? At Nine Zero, where beefy young men with baseball caps stand guard, there is little sign. "We do not want him to come back to Karachi; it is too dangerous here," said parliamentarian Faisal Subzwari.

But there is always hope. A few doors down Mr Hussain's deserted terraced house is waiting, protected by blastproof metal shutters. For now, though, it has just one occupant - a 24-hour telephone operator.

LONDON: Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain is facing the danger of being tried in the UK courts over terrorism charges after the British media declared on Saturday that the MQM is run like the mafia from an office block in London amid accusations that the party had planned (the May 12) carnage which left 42 dead.

This was declared in the findings of an investigative report of The Guardian. The MQM chief refused to meet its reporter when he tried to get his version on all these charges. His refusal strengthened the British media's view that the MQM is run like the mafia and whatever was being said about the party in Pakistan carried a lot of weight.

On the eve of arrival of Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan in London to file cases against the MQM chief, the UK media also splashed his demand that Altaf should face anti-terror charges.

The Daily Telegraph was the first paper to run a four-column front page story against Altaf, headlined, Running Karachi from London. The Guardian had assigned two of its reporters to investigate charges against the MQM and its chief Altaf Hussain. One of them went to Karachi and the other visited the MQM's London office to meet Altaf in his party office. The first reporter visited Altaf's residence in Karachi and found only one telephone operator running the house. The second reporter was shown only certain rooms of the MQM office in London and told that Altaf Bhai was not available to meet him.

According to The Guardian, outside may be Karachi but inside the discreetly guarded room all minds are focused on London. The clock is set to British summer time and a pair of telephones connect to an office 5,000 miles away, from where a controversial leader runs his political empire.

Altaf Hussain leads the Muttahida Qaumi Movement -- a powerful, popular and, critics say, thuggish political force that has a vice-like grip on Karachi. At "Nine Zero", the party headquarters in Karachi, his presence looms large. A giant poster hangs over the entrance and reverential acolytes speak of "Altaf Bhai". But the great leader is missing.

The Guardian writes that for the past 16 years, Altaf has lived in self-imposed exile in the UK, first as an asylum seeker and now as a British citizen. Based in an office block on Edgware High Street in north London he rules by phone, directing his closest lieutenants in long, late-night conversations. But in Pakistan that arrangement has become a matter of controversy -- one about to land at the British government's door.

The Guardian said cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan arrived in London to try to have Altaf prosecuted under British anti-terror laws. Three weeks ago gunmen opened fire on a rally in support of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, triggering a day of bloodshed that left 42 people dead. Imran -- as well as lawyers, human rights activists and opposition parties -- accuse Altaf of orchestrating the carnage from his sofa in London.

"The whole thing was planned. No British citizen is allowed to sit in London and direct terrorist operations abroad. So why should Altaf Hussain?" said Imran Khan who described the MQM as a fascist movement run by criminals. "If Pakistan has to arrest al-Qaeda operatives, then Britain has an obligation to pick up Altaf," added Imran, who plans to bring a petition to Downing Street. "There's a war on terror going on but here we have Pakistan's No 1 terrorist being given sanctuary by the British government," he said.

The MQM denies the charges, and insists it was the victim and not the perpetrator of May 12. The party says 13 of its own activists were among the dead, and last week it produced a video from May 12 showing apparent supporters of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) firing their guns in the air. "This is a conspiracy against us. Our decision to hold a rally on May 12 may be open to criticism, but we were not involved in armed attacks," said Dr Farooq Sattar, deputy convener of the MQM's Rabita Committee.

But Altaf has little to say. At the MQM's International Secretariat on Edgware High Street -- a red brick office block opposite a supermarket -- a party official said the leader was not available for comment. But he was happy to show the Guardian around the offices, which he confirmed was Altaf's London headquarters, and he vowed to repel any court action by Imran.

The fight is getting personal. Back in Karachi, graffiti slurs against Imran appeared on walls and the MQM-dominated local government has banned him from the city for one month. The report said the MQM was founded in 1984 by Altaf, a former Chicago cab driver, and won broad support among the Mohajirs. The party prided itself on its well-oiled machine and its secular, liberal outlook. But since May 12 the party's aspirations of becoming a national force lie in shreds, and there are worrying echoes of past tactics.

On Tuesday, three Karachi journalists with foreign news agencies found unmarked envelopes containing a single bullet on their car windscreens. Two of them had earlier been denounced as anti-Mohajir by the MQM-linked Muhajir Rabita Council.

The Guardian asks, "Will Mr Hussain ever come home?" At Nine Zero, where beefy young men with baseball caps stand guard, there is little sign. "We do not want him to come back to Karachi; it is too dangerous here," said parliamentarian Faisal Subzwari. But there is always hope. A few doors down Altaf's deserted terraced house is waiting, protected by blast proof metal shutters. For now, though, it has just one occupant -- a 24-hour telephone operator.

LONDON: The new proposed powers to British police to use telephonic conversations as evidence in a court of law might land Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain in hot waters, or at least greatly affect his regular telephonic addresses to his followers in Pakistan.

The British government has been bringing sweeping anti-terrorism laws to use telephonic addresses, secret conversations and email messages of individuals as strong evidence in the courts on the pattern of American and European laws.

After the enactment of these new laws at least Altaf would be required to be very careful in choosing his words as these might be used as evidence by police, if someone accuses him of inciting violence.

Pakistani opposition leaders, particularly Imran Khan, are already levelling allegations against Altaf for inciting violence in Pakistan through his telephonic addresses during the last 16 years since he arrived here in 1992.

Parts of the proposals will be laid out in more detail on Thursday, when the outgoing home secretary, John Reid, will announce a consultation on the terrorism bill due this autumn. They include detaining suspects for more than four weeks without charge, allowing questioning after charge and the use of intercept evidence.

It is understood here that regular telephonic addresses of Altaf Hussain from London to Karachi were recorded by the secret agencies of Britain. But under the current laws, these conversations could not be produced as evidence in courts of law.

According to available details of these proposals, now material gathered from intercepts, and transcripts of telephone and email conversations would be admissible in evidence in criminal trials. Currently, patterns of phone contacts — who called who, and how often — can be used as evidence, and lengthy schedules of calls are a common feature of criminal trials.

At present telephonic conversation or emails can only be used as intelligence, which may act as a springboard for an evidence-gathering investigation. This prohibition has been enshrined in law since the 1980s.

One of the proposals says police should be able to question terror suspects who have been charged and are awaiting trial. Under current law, police can arrest someone for an offence when the person is facing trial for a completely separate offence. However, the police are not allowed to question the person about the offence they have already been charged with, even if evidence emerges that was not available before they were charged. The shutter comes down when someone is charged.

Another proposal is to make terrorism an aggravating factor in sentencing, in the same way that racial motivation is. This would have the greatest effect in cases that spin off from core terrorism inquiries, such as benefit or passport fraud, where there is intelligence about terror links but no obvious crimes of violence. Police want these lesser offences to be punished more severely if they can show the fraud was to help terrorists.

One proposal calls for greater public scrutiny of the heads of MI5 and MI6. Currently, they are overseen by the Intelligence and Security Committee, which reports to the prime minister and conducts its work in secret.

KARACHI, May 23: The Council of Pakistan Newspapers Editors has severely criticised “unprovoked and reprehensible” remarks made by the adviser to the Sindh chief minister on information and archives, Salahuddin Haider, against the chief executive of Dawn.

A press statement issued on Tuesday says the CPNE has decided not to invite the adviser to any CPNE event either in his official or personal capacity until the matter was satisfactorily resolved “either by the issue of a public apology by the official concerned or by his removal from the official post”.

It says no CPNE delegation will meet the adviser and will, instead, directly meet the chief executive of the province.

“The CPNE wishes to formally lodge a complaint against the reprehensible behaviour, words and actions of the adviser to the Sindh chief minister on information and archives, Salahuddin Haider, who is a Muttahida Quami Movement appointee in the coalition government of Sindh.” His behaviour, the statement says, exceeds all acceptable norms of decency and what is expected from an official of a government that purports to believe in the freedom of press as contained in Article 19 of the Constition.

The statement says Mr Haider has attempted to force the Dawn Group to change its reasonable and varied reporting of activities of the Sindh government and his party, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, by resorting to restrict and ban government advertisement.

It also notes that at various points he has threatened journalists, employees and functionaries at the Dawn Group of Newspapers.

“Firstly, the information adviser must be asked to publicly apologize for his remarks with respect to the chief executive of Dawn which were unprovoked and reprehensible in the extreme. The fact that he has failed to do so up to this point and has continued to make noisy threats behind the scenes is further proof of the fact that he needs to be reined in.”

The CPNE has also asked “the Sindh chief minister, the federal minister and the prime minister” to reprimand the adviser about his “unacceptable behaviour”. It has also urged the MQM leadership to reprimand the adviser.